In the case that you are involved with a charitable organization, I thought this might be of some use for you. We’ve found many Non-Profits have the same challenges and needs when it comes to IT as all other businesses. Because of this, I’ve put together this Non-Profit Starter Kit to provide some useful cost saving options for efficiency, and maximize outreach.

Empowering Charities by utilizing Information Technology

Simple IT guide for charity organizations

While some of our customers happen to be charity organizations, many of the people we interact with serve on Boards for non-profits. This article is intended to help assist those involved with smaller non-profits or startups. Some of these recommendations also apply to more established and larger non-profits, but economies of scale and access to volume/charity pricing is not taken into account.

Managing a charity is challenging enough, having to recruit and manage volunteers, maintain focus on mission, and sustain the organization. Since most fundraising efforts are dedicated to mission, operational needs are commonly an afterthought and underfunded. A capital outlay required for infrastructure, such as cabling, network equipment, servers, and workstations. However, there are many cost-effective solutions to minimize other IT costs, including software, online presence, and even some infrastructure. Many of the solutions are free or inexpensive subscription-based requiring little to no capital outlay.

Hardware – It is best to purchase in volume and maintain similar configurations. This helps to simplify the ordering process, can result in discounted pricing, and is less costly to maintain. With the exception of being able to purchase some equipment through TechSoup, most will need to be purchased through a reseller or direct from the manufacturer. Stay away from big box stores like Best Buy and Tiger Direct and go with one of the 3 primary vendors – Dell, HP, or Lenovo.

Office Software – There are several options for general office software such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. Microsoft and Google are the most well-known. Organizations have made an attempt of using Google apps, but the business community is still standardized on the Microsoft Office suite. Microsoft is charity-friendly and offers email and online versions of its Office suite for free, and charges $5.00 per user per month for full on premise licenses.

Microsoft Office 365 for Non-Profits                Apps Non-Profits

Email – Email is offered for free as part of Microsoft’s Office 365 solution and uses Hosted Exchange and the Outlook client. Using the solution, email is filtered for spam and viruses, stored and backed up in the cloud, and is accessible from most smartphones.

Domain Names – In today’s world, selecting a name for an organization can be impacted by what is available online. Choose a domain name that closely matches your brand and is easy to remember. Since most commonly used names and abbreviations are already taken, try adding location to the name to make it unique, i.e.: leadsgroupil.org. (“il” for Illinois). Note that non-profits should use the “.org” extension for their domain, as this signifies that the domain is used by a charity organization. Domains are purchased via a Registrar, such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions.

Website – There are two components to having a website:

  1. Host provider – There is normally a small annual fee for hosting. Sometimes, this can be part of the package when signing up for your domain or can be included with a web developer’s services or the platform you choose.
  2. Website development – This can be outsourced to an individual or company who does website development or can be done internally. There are some nice online tools that make it very simple to develop your own website, using ready-made templates.

Social Media – Websites should be used for marketing the organization, but interaction is done via social media tools such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and some newer geo-based tools such as FourSquare. While these tools are free, it does require resources and time to maintain these. Tools such as HootSuite make it easier to maintain from a single point.

Newsletters – There are a couple of nice online newsletter tools, including MailChimp and ConstantContact. It is recommend to use these tools rather than sending out PDF or other versions of newsletters. These tools allow for management of a mail list and include nice online templates for newsletters. Other features are available such as the ability to announce an event and manage confirmations, and managed social campaigns to grow your online audience.

Accounting/Membership Management – Consider Intuit’s online version of QuickBooks Also, SalesForce.com offers a 10 user license for charities and is an excellent CRM and membership management tool.

Payment Processing – Consider PayPalor Intuit’s Square. Note that you may want to ensure that you can process credit cards for payment.

These recommendations will help most charity organizations navigate the murky waters of information technology. Keep in mind that there are people who can assist with expediting the ramp-up time and that it is necessary to have a trained staff member or contractor maintain the IT infrastructure. Items to consider are: patching and securing of the network, servers, and workstations; ongoing support, and offsite backups and disaster recovery.

Please feel free to share this information with anyone you believe could benefit from it, or contact me with any additional feedback you may be interested in discussing!

Alex Ziogas
President, AZBS Inc
641 W. Lake Street, Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60661
Email: alex@azbs.com
Website: www.azbs.com